Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a teeth cleaning device and method for simultaneously brushing all the teeth of at least one arch.
Description of the Related Art
Its very simple use protocol is particularly intended for people with reduced mobility and, more generally, for all those having difficulties to clean their teeth with the traditional brushing systems.
Teeth cleaning is conventionally performed using a toothbrush. To be efficient, its handling requires learning and skill which are sometimes lacking.
The automation of the movements of the head of the electrical toothbrush facilitates its use but equally requires a good coordination and the compliance with a strict protocol. Cleaning is optimal only when it concerns a “standard” dental arch, namely without crooked teeth, and when the periodontal tissues are healthy. This ideal situation is rarely met with persons with disabilities.
It is then necessary to resort to systems adapted to complement and perfect the dental hygiene: the water toothpick, the floss and the interdental brush, the disinfecting mouthwashes. Their use is restricted to sufficiently skilled subjects and requires long minutes of patience.
There also exist particular situations, such as those of militaries on the move or in operation, for which ensuring the oral hygiene is difficult using a toothbrush.
The present inventor sought a solution overcoming all these disadvantages and, to this end, developed a teeth cleaning device according to which cleaning is performed by a contraction (which can also be referred to as being a constriction) and a relaxation, according to successive cycles, of a shell or gutter/mouth piece made of a resilient material receiving and enclosing all the teeth of an arch or of both arches.
To the best knowledge of the applicant, no document of the prior art which describes a teeth cleaning or a dental treatment using a mouth piece or the like, such as US 2010/0151407 A1, EP 1506746, WO 2005/94719 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 7,537,451 B1, DE 10153245, WO 2010/02498 A1, has suggested to perform a teeth cleaning by successive relaxation and contraction movements of a flexible mouth piece around the teeth of an arch or of two arches to be cleaned, said mouth piece being advantageously internally covered with a coating adapted to perfect the removal of soiling and of the dental plaque from the teeth and the interdental spaces, and the relaxation-contraction cycles being advantageously caused by the alternatively performed repeated operations of injecting in the mouth piece a fluid, namely a disinfecting new fluid, and then of evacuating from said mouth piece said used disinfecting fluid.
Thus, in the case of using such a disinfecting fluid, the present invention provides the complementary advantage of allowing to perform as efficiently the cleaning and the disinfection of the teeth and of the interdental spaces, regardless of the configuration of the arches.
Furthermore, according to a particularly interesting embodiment, the use, for ensuring such relaxation-contraction cycles, of a device exerting pressure/depression cycles (pressure/depression cycle generator) within the mouth piece allows to automate all the cleaning operations and requires no complex handling.
Thus, the invention allows to reduce the time dedicated to the oral hygiene and to the brushing to a few seconds and significantly increases its efficiency.